The whole point to come to Lijiang was to hike the tiger leaping gorge which is supposed to be one of the most amazing hikes in china. After the big bummer of foggy emeishan I wasn't sure anymore if I wanted to hike and see nothing but when I got here the weather was very different and it looked like it was going to be beautiful.

The night before the hike I was disappointed that my hostel had no one and didn't find a travel partner. I did some research and I came upon some blogs/ travel advice that said that it was not advisable to do it solo, mainly because it's a hard hike and if help is needed I wouldn't be able to get any. The other reason was that solo travelers are targeted and get robbed.

After reading that I got super anxious to the point that I didn't want to do it anymore. I immediately texted my mom to see what her opinion was since my gut was saying don't do it. I also reached out to 2 friends who have done and they both encouraged me to do it. I was highly motivated but fear really took over. My mom advised me to pray for an angel to appear. I went to bed that night praying for an angel to show up and had the plan to take bus to starting point and assess the situation and decide wether or not I would do it.

In the morning I woke up with horrible stomach pain... my anxiety! I quickly talked my self out of it!

I checked out of my room at 7am to get to the bus station for my 8:30 bus. One of the girls from the hostel woke up early to take my bags and she even walked me to the taxi. Of course I was there an hour before the scheduled departure just because that's who I am! 

At 8:20 the check in started to get into the bus. I had told myself that if I didn't meet anybody in the bus I wouldn't hike alone. The bus got almost filled and at 8:27 two guys with backpacks walked in, only 3 seats left, one in the front, one in the middle of the back row, and one next to me! And guess what? One of them sat next to me... could this been the angel I prayed for?!?!

We talked the whole way there and told him my thoughts and he said I should do it. On the stop he said I could join them so decided to do so, or at least tell myself that I was not alone because I knew I would never be able to keep up with them. 

We were dropped off at the start of the hike and it was an easy paved road to the beginning of the real hike. 

For once in China it is not paved and made out of stairs! Part of why I was nervous to do this hike is because I knew it was real hiking and there wouldn't be masses of Chinese people walking around me and giving me some sense of safety.

I read a lot of blogs (maybe too many) so I knew this would be an intense hike and that there were going to be parts where you thought you were done with the uphill only to realize the worst is yet to come! I took it slowly but surely and made sure I went at a pace that was comfortable for me. Throughout the hike I kept repeating to myself "I am strong, I can do it", "your legs take you where you need to go" and many others that I can't even remember!

The first part I did it on and off with the boys but then it was just too hard and they were flying through it. Just the idea of having someone somewhere around made me feel a little safe. I said hello to every single person I came across in the trail, I would see them come and asked my typical question "hello, where are you from?" I met an Italian couple, a couple from Singapore, and a group of Koreans. It was nice to know there were people around and I wasn't alone. Also, there are many men with horses that would follow you and offer you a horse back ride to your destination. Once the boys were too fast so I was with the Koreans but when I met the boys back at a stop the Koreans passed me. When we started hiking back the boys zoomed past me and I was left alone, thankfully a horse guy followed me the whole way until I met the boys again, I couldn't help but wonder... another angel?!?

I stopped a lot for pictures so I lost the boys again and then I missed the path, I thought to myself "wow, they are fast... I can't see them anymore" then I looked up and saw their backpacks, way uphill!!! I had to go back and take the trail up!

Now it was all uphill... and I was alone... the last one on the trail... Koreans were gone, so were the Italians, and the boys! And... no horse!

So there I was... on my own... hiking up up up, trying to cheer myself up and don't think too much about how I was the last person on the trail.

The most horrible part of the hike is called the 28 bends and maybe 20-30 mins before reaching the starting point a local guy carrying an empty plastic basket on his back saw me and said "you one? Alone?" Holly smokes... is he gonna rob me? Immediately I said "No, friends up, too fast for me" and kept hiking. 

Before reaching the 28 bends starting point I met the Singapore couple and started talking and walking with them, I was so relieved to have found somebody! On our way up we heard people screaming at each other (or could it be Chinese people having a conversation?) and when I reached the starting point it was the guy who asked me if I was alone the one doing all the screaming, I asked the guy from Singapore what was going on and he told me they were fighting!

We rested there for a bit and it seemed that my hiking buddies were even slower than me (who would have thought such people existed) so I said I would start walking since I was very slow. Before leaving I said "I am scared of that man", the man that by now had an electric chainsaw in his plastic basket (in my mind the chainsaw was battery operated.) I started walking and was nervous. I let the guy walk for a little bit and then continued. Maybe 3-5 mins had passed when I saw some cows... all of them mooing and ringing their bells once they saw me. 

Guess who was sitting at the rock smoking? The guy with the chainsaw! Holy smokes... I got even more nervous! 

As I walked he stared at me... aahhh... I hope his chainsaw doesn't work! I walked passed him and he actually turned his body to see me go by!!! Hay Dios mío!!!!

I turned around to see if he was watching me and took a picture.. you know, when I go missing and they mysteriously find my camera they could see my last picture and trace him! I was so freaking nervous... I knew this was irrational thinking... but... it could happen! My only weapon was the baby sunscreen I have in my bag and just spray it in his eyes (while I somehow avoiding getting chopped by the loud chainsaw!) or maybe just hitting him with my sturdy (folded) GoPro selfie stick! I had it all figured out!

I kept sneakily looking back and then saw him leave... he didn't take the trail so my mind immediately thought "what if he takes a short cut and surprises you later on?" 

Thankfully that didn't happen and I forgot about him, I focused on my mantra while doing the deadly 28  bends and made sure I didn't throw up... I felt so sick! 

After probably an hour or more (I wouldn't know the time since my iPhone is crazy and turns itself off anywhere between 60% to 1% battery and today it gave up at 54%) I reached a stand with a lady who asked me to sit down, I was half dead so I did. She also sold me a cold bottle of water for 5yuans! I sat there for a good five minutes and was impressed that she could understand a little English. I asked her how long more and she said "2 minutes" but I didn't believe her. While seating there the Italian couple showed up... wait! Whaaaaat? Weren't they ahead? It turned out they stopped for lunch! Sweet! I wasn't alone!

I started hiking again and I was so happy to see that she was right... in 2 minutes it was all downhill!!! I remembered one day when I took Lachlan (2 years old) on a very long bike ride and to encourage him to keep going I came up with this game of screaming "downhilly is fun" when going down hill to cheer him up... Downhilly is indeed fun!!! 

I  started seeing one hour to the Tea-horse Trade Guesthouse

I was happily walking down and then had to stop for a picture with the beautiful view. Then the Italians just zoomed past me, they didn't care about the view! Haha I was relieved there was still one couple behind me.

I kept walking and probably 20 mins later the Koreans came!!! I was so happy!!!! They said hi and I said "you stopped for lunch at Naxi?" They did! I am so glad! They asked for the boys and then told me to walk with them! Yeay! 

We walked walked and walked! But I lost them to picture taking when I saw a village and took pictures to show that I made it.

When I got to the village I saw the Tea Horse Guesthouse but there were 2 ways to go... oh no! I walked towards the Tea Horse hotel but the route seemed like it only led to the hotel so I turned around! Went downhill and I lady started screaming at me, I turned around again and tried the hotel way again!

 Guess who was there? The Koreans looking out from the terrace. One of the older guys told me I should go with them an hour away to the next town and sleep there. I said no because I thought we were in the half way and I went looking for the hotel. Walking around I couldn't find anything but houses! And then the Koreans showed up out of nowhere so I asked if they saw the "come inn" hotel, they said no. 

Decided to walk with them to find the hotel. We started walking on paved road... how weird! I did not red anything about paved roads in any of the blogs. I took my phone and battery pack out and re read the blog... no paved street.

Just then we saw people walking higher than us and they turned out to be Korean! They told them that the half way was an hour away and we needed to get in the path! So we went through the woods!

The way to the half way was almost flat and down and very beautiful! I was so glad I was with the Koreans otherwise I might have ended up crying God knows where!

During the hike I said "awww... look at this" and just looked everywhere and one of the Korean girls said "You are just having such a good time"... I was!

Since I had read so much about the tiger leaping gorge I knew I wanted to stay at the Come Inn Hostel and have food at the Half Way hotel. Our first stop was the Come inn which offered a dorm for 45 yuans ($7) and only had one person in it, had a clean bathroom, and amazing view right outside the room... 

Then I made it to the half way and met with the boys, had dinner and ended up meeting 3 other guys and having an amazing night under the stars in the terrace of hostel in the middle of nowhere! This is why I love to travel the way I do!

Supposedly the Half Way guesthouse has the toilet with the best view... but it was so disgusting I couldn't go in!

That night I slept at Come inn and the next morning I woke up to a pretty amazing view from my hostel's bed!

The hike down was pretty easy, all either flat or downhill and could be done in less than two hours.

This was pretty much my favorite part of the hike, walking through waterfalls and seeing the magnitude and beauty of the gorge.

It was funny how throughout the hike there were blue signs with english that even I couldn't figure out! haha

Once I reached the bottom I went for lunch at a  cafe overlooking the gorge:

At 3pm I took the bus back to Lijiang and noticed that my cell phone stopped working (the 3G) so I had no  idea how to get back to Shuhe. I previously asked the Korean girls where they were going and they said Shuhe old town so I asked if I could tag along so I wouldn't get lost and they said yes.

Once we got back to Lijiang we went to a couple of cellphone stores to fix my phone but all the stores refused to help because my number was from Shanghai... how weird! 

The Korean girls informed me that a friend would come and pick them up to go to dinner and they invited me to join so I went and it was a super fun dinner with locals!